Dying Free
by Simon System
Summary: SATAM story. Snively saves the life of Bunnie, leaving the Freedom Fighter eager to learn more about the Overlander and his past. But Snively is less then willing to cooperate.


Dying Free

Part One

Bunnie Rabbot ducked around a corner as the Swatbots chased quickly after her. What had started out as a routine salvage mission was quickly turning into more then she could handle. She had been sent into the city to try and locate materials that might prove useful to the Freedom Fighters; Sonic came with her to provide cover by distracting the Swatbots.

Unfortunately the number of Swatbots Robotnik had sent were far more then anticipated, while the bulk of them had followed Sonic as planned, many had noticed the Mobian Rabbit and advanced on her. She fought off as many as she could but the numbers became overwhelming so she attempted to retreat.

Her robotic legs helped her move swifter then most of her kind could move, but of course she did not even come close to matching the speed of Sonic. But the robotic soldiers seemed to come from every direction; a blast to the back of her head rendered her unconscious. That last thing she thought before the darkness overcame her was 'Sorry guys, looks like I aint comin' home this time.'

-

When Bunnie came to the first thing she noticed was the none to comforting hum of machinery and the glow of a faint light. She attempted to open her eyes, but her sight was still extremely blurry.

"Oh yes sir, I have Miss Rabbot imprisoned right here sir, and she the cell I have created is quite inescapable." A familiar nasal voice said.

"Excellent Snively, we have perfect bait for our Hedgehog trap." A second voice which Bunnie knew all to well replied. Shivers went down her spine at the voice's cold metallic sound. "I shall be back at the Death Egg soon Snively, make sure she goes nowhere."

"Of course sir, not a problem sir." Snively said to the image of his Uncle Robotnik on the screen. Bunnie watched silently as her eyes finally adjusted, the screen went dead and Snively turned to his prison.

"Oh good you're awake." Snively said with a slight smirk. Bunnie looked at her surroundings, she was incased in some variety of cage. But instead of bars this small cell had an electronic force field trapping her inside.

"Well if it aint old needlenose, I'm surprised yer this far from old Buttnik, I figured he kept you on a real short leash." Bunnie said with a sneer.

Snively chuckled lightly. "Charming to the last Miss Rabbot, oh how I will miss your witty banter."

Bunnie looked away from Robotnik's underling and inspected the force field that surrounded her. She raised her robotized arm and touched the field, she received a mild shock.

"Sorry my friend, but you won't be escaping that cage." Snively said as he turned back to the screen.

"Yer a real yellow belly, you know that? First you let yer robots due all the fightin for you, and then you act all tough when you got me in a cage!" Bunnie shouted at the small Overlander.

Snively sighed and continued facing the screen. "May you please be quiet you furry nuisance."

"If you want me to be quiet why don't you just let me out and we'll settle thing one on one, or are you afraid of a fair fight?" Bunnie taunted as she stood up.

Snively finally turned to face his prisoner; he had a fire in his eyes Bunnie did not recognize. "Are you calling me a coward?"

"Why shouldn't I? You aint got any courage," Bunnie spat out. "If you did, you wouldn't be afraid to fight me yourself! Instead, you have to leave me to your boss."

"I have my orders, Freedom Fighter." Snively shot back.

"You see? You don't do anything yourself. You only do what Robotnik tells you." Bunnie shouted back. "Why do you even work fer old Buttnik? Out of loyalty or fear?"

"Shut up you miserable freak!" Snively screamed.

Bunnie grinned to herself, she knew she wouldn't be able to escape unless she could trick Snively somehow, she hoped getting him angry would drive him to make a mistake. Or if nothing else she could at least stall until her friends could launch a rescue.

"Truth hurts, don't it Snively? Face it, you are afraid! You serve the fat red guy cause you're afraid of him. You run away from us every time you come near us cause you're afraid of us. You lie and spy and cheat because you aint got the courage it takes to do anything else. And now you're afraid to hear the truth. Face it you've never done anything in your whole life that wasn't cause of fear."

"That's enough! I won't listen to any more of this you furball!"

"Why afraid I'm right?" Bunnie mocked.

"I won't be spoken to like that by someone of your inferior species!" Snively said, and he once again faced the compute screen. He started to type furiously in an attempt to try and ignore Bunnie.

"You aint even gonna stand up for yourself?" Bunnie asked him, slightly surprised. "I know you don't even like Robotnik, so why leave?

Snively turned his head slightly to glance at Bunnie "You have no idea what you're asking of me."

"So I was right huh? Yer afraid"

"I have reasons for what I do."

Bunnie sneered slightly. "I knew you were yellow Snively, but I had no idea you were this pathetic."

"Easy for you to say, you have no idea what my life is like"

Bunnie was distracted when she felt something warm roll down the back of her head, she reached back to check what it was. She looked at her hand, it was covered in blood. That blaster shot she received to the back of the head earlier must have caused more damaged then she had originally though.

Snively noticed the blood on her hand and approached her cell. "You're hurt."

"So what, why do you care?" Bunnie asked defensively.

"I would not gain anything if you bled to death Miss Rabbot." Snively gritted his teeth. He picked up a first aid box he usually kept near by. He then shut down the shield around her, much to her total shock, but she made no move. It had to be a trick, she knew Snively would not simply hand her such an easy opening for an escape.

"Hold still, and don't try anything foolish." He warned.

"Leave me alone," she said.

"Do you want to die you little fool?" Snively asked gruffly. "If you wish to expire that's fine by me, but if you wish to live allow me to examine you wound."

Confused but compliant, Bunnie did as she was told. After all, what did she have to lose? Even if he was trying to hurt her, he couldn't do much worse than speed up her demise. But... for some odd reason, it felt an awful lot like he was cleaning her injury and carefully dabbing it with some kind of ointment that took away her pain and brought welcome coolness.

"Better?" he inquired.

"I - I guess so," Bunnie stammered. "But... why would you help me?"

He avoided the question and stepped away from the cage; he then turned to the room's door and exited. "Farewell Miss Rabbot."

Bunnie's jaw dropped, Snively had forgotten to reactivate the cell's force field. 'No, couldn't have forgotten. He intentionally left the shield down.' She realized.

First Snively treated her wounds, then he had released her. She exited the cell and darted into the hall. "Snively wait!" She shouted at him as she spotted him

"Go now." He told her calmly.

"But why are you doing this?" She asked him.

Snively seemed to consider the question, and then shrugged. "I guess I simply wanted to show you I don't always do what Uncle Julian tells me to. Follow this hall and turn right at the end, you can escape through the garbage disposal hatch. If you get captured again I won't help you."

Bunnie still had a look of confusion on her face. "But what about you? Robotnik aint going to be happy bout this I reckon."

"Your concern is heart warming I assure you, but I can handle my self thank you." Snively said with a sneer.

"But I can't just leave you here to get hurt. Come with me." Bunnie herself could not believe the words coming out of her mouth, but she didn't want to leave him here to Robotnik's wraith. "Come join the Freedom Fighters."

Snively couldn't help but snicker. "Thanks but no thanks; I have no great love for you or your kind. Just go now."

Bunnie opened her mouth to protest, but heard the sound of Swatbots approaching.

"Robotnik will be here in moments, go now!" Snively hissed. Bunnie looked in the direct the sound was coming from, then back to Snively. She looked at him sadly.

"Please come with me." She asked him again, this time pleadingly.

"For the last time no!" Snively shouted fiercely.

She sighed and turned around. "I'll come back for you sugah, and thanks." She blasted down the hall as fast are her legs would let her.

"Don't bother." He said to her as she disappeared "And…you're welcome." Snively then groaned as he attempted to think of something to tell Robotnik about why his prisoner escaped.

-

"Snively, what are you doing here?" Robotnik screamed at his lackey nephew as he approached the young man who stood in the hall. "You're supposed to be guarding the freedom fighter!"

"I'm afraid I cannot do that sir." Snively said meekly. .

"And why not Snively?" The large man snarled, his large red and black eyes focused on the much smaller man.

"I regret to inform you that Miss Rabbot has…escape sir." Snively mumbled.

"She ESCAPED! How is that possible Snively?" Robotnik screamed in fury Snively flinched noticeably.

"Um…I forgot to activate the cell's force field…sir." Snively lied.

Robotnik's anger became uncontrollable. He lifted the small man with one of his large arms and held him in the air.

"OF ALL THE IDOITIC, LAME BRAINED MISTAKES!" Robotnik drew his other arm back and smashed it full force into Snively's stomach. He was flung against the wall and howled in pain. Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts laughed to themselves while watching the scene, making stupid remarks that they felt were witty.

Through all the pain, Snively couldn't figure out why he had let Bunnie go. What had possessed him to help her when he knew Robotnik would beat him savagely for it? For the life of him he could not figure it out.

Yet he couldn't deny the fact that letting her go felt oddly…good. And it was not something he felt often.

-

Bunnie stopped to catch her breath when she finally got out of Robotoplis. She looked back with a regretful look on her face. She felt horrible leaving Snively behind, but she didn't have any other choice. She wondered how she was going to explain this to the others, and she wondered how much Snively would suffer for helping her.

But she fully intended to keep her promise, she would return and she would get Snively out of that place, even if he didn't want to leave.

END PART 1

TO BE CONITNUED


End file.
